Jungle Carpet question
 

I know someone who wants to give me his 4 year old male jungle carpet python for free. He has no more interest in him because he is focusing mainly on BP's.

I'm interested in getting him but I have seen the current owner handle him and he is very persistent on not being held and trying to crawl away and I do believe that the owner has been struck by the snake in the past. I understand that might be the owners fault but I have heard mixed up stories about carpets.

Will this snake ever potentially calm down?

He says his male is 5'6'' long and he feeds him 1 med rat a month. He is also kept in a snake rack and I would be housing him in a aquarium. Not sure if any of this matters but I wanted to provide as much info as possible. He also says he does not handle him much.

All help is appreciated!
Ryan

Yes he should calm down as time goes on if you handle him in small frequent amounts properly. Carpets are known to be a little snippy sometimes, and can move fast if they want to, do not mistake there muscular strength and speed for aggression! This is just how they can be, and ive seen othe carpets on the polar opposite end of this kind of behavior as well where they are tame as cornsnakes. The key is enforcing positive interaction between you and the snake itself. Obviously do not handle is roughly, but keep control, let him move about freely on your body, eventually he will calm down.

Thanks for the help! I'm going to check him out tomorrow and I needed some input.

I went and checked him out today and he handled very well. He crawled a lot but he didn't try to bite or snip. I would have taken him except he had a pretty bad weez when he breathed.

I have three other snakes. Two ball pythons and a red tail boa. My concern is the healthy snakes may get sick also??? I'm not sure how contagious respiratory issues are, and how easily the sickness can be passed to other species of snakes??? Also, would it be hard or expensive to treat the snake properly???

Thanks again,
Ryan

Wheezing could be a sign of a uri, treating it properly takes time and money. Or the wheezing you heard may have been a "stress hiss" that some snakes do when being handled, youll have to be the judge on that.

It didn't sound like the usual hisses I've heard from BP's but i figured it may possibly very with species? Also, he does have three BP's that are currently sick, but again their weez was quiet and gentle compared to the weez of his Carpet.

Thanks for the quick response!
Ryan

Sounds like the 4 sick snakes he has needs to be rescued. If it were me Id take them all and get them the help they need.